In modern dairy farm industry there are continuous research and development activities in order to improve the efficiency of various activities such as machine milking, which, inter alia, involves increased milk yield and reduced milking time, while, naturally, ethical aspects as well as animal care are considered.
Voluntary milking systems, which cows visit on a voluntary basis, have become increasingly common during the last years. In such systems cows are monitored and are given milking permission on an individual basis. Sometimes the milking performed by such a milking system is not complete, that is, it may happen that a cow that has been milked has an udder compartment that was incompletely milked. The incomplete milking may have been caused by a teat cup kick or fall off during milking. Incomplete milking may also be caused by a failed teat cup attachment, e.g. caused by a dirty camera lens, an unfavorable teat position, or interfering hairs. Incomplete milking may as well depend on a damaged or infected teat.
Typically, such cow may obtain a new milking permission directly or soon after the incomplete milking, and in connection with such subsequent milking, teat cups are again attached to the teats of the cow.
Such subsequent milking, wherein teat cups are attached to all teats of the cow and milking of all teats is performed, is time consuming and the teats get unnecessarily worn or rubbed.